Second Chances
by meganechan720
Summary: "I can't remember some things, but I do remember you. Did we play together?" "Uh, yeah. We did." Season 4, Episode 6. Formerly titled 'The Daimyo's Son.'
1. chess

"Leonardo-san, it's your move."

Leo looks back at his opponent and smiles ruefully. He _had_ been lost in thought. He considers the board carefully, and then moves his silver general to capture the enemy lance. The young boy opposite him pulls a face and throws up his hands.

"There is no way for me to win now, Leonardo-san! Truly, you are the best shogi player I have ever known."

"I am surely not," he replies, smiling. "My father can best me with his eyes closed."

The boy wrinkles his nose in a silent laugh.

"So can mine."

They share a moment of humor, and then the boy rearranges the board for another match, clearly giving up this one for a lost cause. Leo lets him. In truth, he would really rather not be here, but he has little choice in the matter. His father, Master Splinter, and the Ultimate Daimyo encouraged this friendship between their sons, which prompted Splinter to bring him along to the Battle Nexus for visits more often than he might have otherwise. Leonardo can understand why, and he would never do anything to disappoint his father, and yet…

And yet, at moments like these, when the boy isn't looking at him and he can stare unnoticed, he remembers.

"Leonardo-san, do you believe that dreams have meaning?"

The question catches him off guard, and he gapes at the boy, who fiddles with a pawn and looks down at the board.

"I have these dreams sometimes, and… you're in them."

"What are these dreams about?" Leo asks, stomach sinking. The boy won't look at him. "Dreams are not something we choose," he tells him reassuringly, even though he would rather just let the subject drop. "They are nothing to be ashamed of."

"But—" The boy places the tile onto the board with a clear _tap_. "They are very strange and… disturbing dreams."

"Tell me about them," Leo says calmly. The boy frowns, but this time it is only in concentration.

"I am always… older, in these dreams. Much older than I am now. And… different. Sometimes I am fighting you. Sometimes… I want to kill you." He is whispering now, and Leo closes his eyes, unable to watch. The boy goes on. "Other times there is another… mind, inside my mind, and our bodies are fused together and we stay that way for a very long time. When I dream about that, then it is Master Splinter I also wish to kill, and all your brothers, and you." The boy looks up at Leo suddenly, his voice growing urgent. "But I don't want to kill you! I like you, Leonardo-san. You're my friend. Why do I have these strange dreams? Sometimes when I wake up, the hate is still there, and I have to remind myself that I am still a child, and not a man, and that you are my friend." The boy drops his gaze when Leo says nothing.

What can he say? This boy was his enemy, and now he is not. But if he had all his memories back, he surely would be again. Who is to say he will not grow up the same way he did before, and become Leonardo's enemy anyway. And yet, it is very pleasant, in its own way, to have a child look up to him, want to play with him, admire him. Not to mention the relief it is to interact with someone who does not find his appearance very strange at all. Leo can't figure out how he feels about this boy, and it stops his tongue when he should be offering words of reassurance.

The silence goes on for too long, and the boy finishes putting the pieces in place with a downcast look. Leo picks up a piece, and before setting it down he says,

"Sometimes dreams are just dreams."

The boy looks up at him with something like hope in his eyes. Leo gives him a smile, though he doesn't feel it.

"Your move."

* * *

_AN: Shogi is Japanese chess._


	2. sparring

On occasion, he forgets himself and he hurts the boy.

He is always ashamed afterward, deeply wounded by his own apparent inability to forgive. Never mind that these incidents only happen during sparring matches. Never mind that they are never more than love taps, resulting in nothing more than a bruise or a scratch. He knows the difference between the teaching wounds and the others, and the fact that this happens at all appalls him.

He has asked his Master to stop taking him to the Battle Nexus, plead calmly with the Daimyo to withdraw permission. But they seem not to notice the desperation in his eyes, and so they chalk it up to false modesty and refuse.

Leo wonders blackly if they are so desperate for the boy to change that they willingly blind themselves to what has not changed.

He blocks the strike easily, but the next one snakes in around his guard (_a feint!_) and catches him in the side, where no shell protects him. He grunts involuntarily, and the boy stops, looking nervous. Leo frowns. He has long ago drilled into him the fact that as the senior he is responsible for his own safety as well as that of the child's. If the boy injures him, it is Leonardo's fault for being careless. If he injures the boy, it is the same thing. And yet, every time Leo slips up and lets in a hit, no matter how small, the boy hesitates, looking up into his eyes for reassurance. He finds this ironic, for more reasons than one. _It's only a wooden sword,_ Leo thinks dryly. _I've had worse—from you, no less._

"Keep pressing the attack," he orders. "Don't stop just when you've gotten the advantage."

The boy nods, and they begin again. It isn't all bad. Master Splinter has decided, for many reasons, that this boy is an ideal first pupil for Leonardo, and that side of things seems to be going well. He is learning a new kind of patience, learning how to build and encourage, as well as correct and chastise. Eager as he always is to gain new skills, it is a good feeling to watch himself grow along with his student. Most of the time he can forget, cover the old memories with new ones. _This_ boy has dropped his swords out of sheer clumsiness, tripped over his own feet, asked immensely stupid questions that Leo answers with benevolent patience.

It is rare, now, for the old memories to rise up and cover the new ones, but it still happens. The boy moves, just so, and the mask covers his face again, and his eyes hold that old, familiar hatred, and before Leo can cancel out the impulse he is using all his skill and strength when he should be holding back and the boy falls, crying out.

The cry is always what brings him back to himself. _He_ never cried out like that. This one before him is a child, and Leonardo has done the unthinkable, yet again. He wonders if the boy knows.

The boy in question gets to his feet, the scrape on his cheek bleeding softly, brow furrowed in determination. Leo would be proud, if he wasn't so disgusted with himself. And that's the problem, right there.

It is not the boy he is afraid of; it is himself.

He brings up his sword for another round, and swallows back bile.


	3. hiking

_This chapter references events from The Big Brawl, Part 4._

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* * *

_

Their fathers suggest an overnight hike, and they share a look of dismay that is almost companionable. They are obedient sons, however, and so they pack, Leonardo directing his young pupil on what is essential and what is not. The boy's bag is nearly empty by the time his teacher is through with it. This journey is about pitting oneself against nature, placing the silhouette of the soul against the backdrop of the mountains and thereby seeing oneself with clarity, all extraneous details stripped away.

They roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories. They are only children, after all.

They retire for the night, but neither of them sleep. After a while Leonardo gets up and walks around the campsite, telling himself he is standing guard. _Against what_, another part of him asks. Eventually the boy joins him, and they stand at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the landscape, the impossible waterfall impossibly tiny from their vantage point. The boy moves forward, awed by the scene. Leo can't blame him. He wonders if he's seen it this way since...

Of course, the boy gets too close to the edge and slips and falls. Leo reacts too late, falling a little himself, holding on to the ledge by his legs and hanging upside down. He catches him by the wrists, holding him tightly He is not sure he can maneuver the boy back up to the ledge. He looks into his young, terrified eyes, and, disappointingly (_he'd been doing so _well), his memory flashes back to that day.

As, apparently, does the boy's, for his eyes go wide in a new kind of fear, and he says, accusingly,

"You let go of me!"

Leo feels sick. He's remembering.

"I didn't mean to!" he protests desperately, but the boy looks betrayed.

"You let go and let me fall! And _he_ was there, and we… It is _your_ fault!"

"No!" Leo can feel his grasp on the boy slipping in the here and now, and he clings to him, tight enough to bruise. "You were too busy fighting to hold on to _me_! All you could think about was power and your stupid pride! You brought this on yourself!"

The boy's eyes are wide, his mouth gaping. Leo can't hold him much longer, and he feels the blood rushing to his head.

"But this time I am not! going! to let! you go!" And he swings the boy up over his feet and onto the ledge, his momentum carrying him up as well, and they land in a heap. Leo feels a wave of dizziness, and he lies as he fell for several moments. Soon the black specks retreat to the edges of his vision and vanish, and he sits up, turning to the Daimyo's son.

The boy is crying.

Leo doesn't know what to do. Tears have always baffled him. They weren't part of his training, and his brothers never cried openly past the age of seven or eight. So he sits awkwardly, waiting for the boy to either stop crying or speak. Finally he does both.

"Leonardo-san, I still do not remember everything, but I do remember how it felt. How… angry I was. And the hate. I remember wanting to kill you. That wasn't a dream, was it?"

The boy looks at him, tear tracks staining his face, eyes accusing. Leo bows his head.

"No. It wasn't."

"But why?"

He doesn't know what Lord Simultaneous had in mind when he changed the Daimyo's son back into a child. He does know that Splinter and the Daimyo agreed it would be best not to remind the boy too much of his time as an adult. But regardless of what others have planned, Leonardo feels in his gut that this needs to happen. And so he lets it.

"I'm… not entirely sure why. You came to me, wanting to defeat me after I had defeated the Shredder. You didn't want to follow your father's rules. You wanted it to be a battle to the death. When I beat you… you couldn't let it go. You kept trying to avenge what you saw as your honor by killing me. Even at the last… the only one you were reluctant to kill was your father."

The boy is silent, digesting this. Eventually he says,

"I do not understand. I remember feeling that way, but I do not understand it. It is… anathema. How could I think that? I will never think that way. That will never be me again. I swear it."

The boy looks into his eyes, determined and strong, so like his father, and so unlike his former self. He has been given a second chance, and he has taken it. Leo remembers another memory suddenly, equally unpleasant, but more personal. The boy in front of him is not the only one who has acted against his own father. He is not the only one to go too far and have to be dragged back from over the edge. He is not the only one who has been given a second chance when it seems all chances have died. Leonardo had given up calling this boy enemy long ago, but now he thinks he can truly begin to call him friend.

Something inside Leonardo unclenches and fades away.

"Then all will be well," he says.


	4. epilogue: movie night

Against his better judgment, he takes him home for a night.

The boy, who has forgotten most of his experiences of other worlds, wants to see what Leonardo's is like. Even the insistence that it would be difficult to see much of it at all does not deter him. He would be content merely to see Leonardo's home, he says, and to meet his family. Leo's resolve has already been worn down by the time the Daimyo comes to him and tells him he thinks it is a good idea.

Michelangelo, of course, makes plans. Mikey-flavored plans. Leo fears for his sanity.

But the boy seems delighted to be in the presence of his brothers, the famous saviors of the Battle Nexus. The fact that _he_ is largely what they had saved it from is not something that will be discussed. Instead Mikey debates the merits of various horror flicks until Leo puts his foot down.

"We're not watching _any_ scary movies while he's here, understand? He's only ten. You'll give him nightmares."

"I would like to watch a movie, if it is all right," the boy speaks up. He is looking at Leonardo hopefully, and suddenly Leo feels like he has gained a fourth little brother. "Um.. what is a movie?"

And Mikey's off. Leo leaves them in front of the TV and makes his way to the kitchen where Splinter is making tea. He sits.

"Sensei, how are you this evening?"

"I am well, my son. How is the boy?"

"He's doing well. He and Mikey are talking about movies." They both pull a face, and Leo has one of those moments where you realize you are turning into your parent. Raph enters and says,

"Yo, where's the kid? I wanna show him my bike. Maybe take him for a ride. There ain't nothin' like riding a motorcycle, even if your dad _is_ the Ultimate Awesome Guy."

Donnie wanders in, looking distracted.

"Do you think he'd like Tetris, or Pole Position? Or maybe Dig-Dug? I thought I'd start him on something simple, something classic."

Leo thinks maybe he's not the only one feeling like they've gained a little brother. He smiles.


End file.
